Is there something going on we don't know about?

O'Prez · 12-01-2014 8:31pm #1

Alright lads. So I was with Vodafone for a couple of years who gave me rock solid 10.5 average download speeds (my line supports 12). This went downhill some time in early December where I was getting download speeds of 2 to 3mb in the evenings, returning to normal after midnight. I cancelled Vodafone and have been with Sky since Thursday and it's the exact same scenario. From reading threads on here it seems a lot of people are in the same boat regardless of provider. Even eFibre customers are complaining. My only other option is Eircom who state they have uncongested broadband. I was of the impression that both Vodafone and Sky were uncongested too (the guy I spoke to at Sky said the drop in speeds were a congestion issue?!?). So what's the craic? Will a move to Eircom just result in the same abysmal evening speeds? Is there some major fault? I'm at a loss as to what's going on.

STEINBERG · 12-01-2014 8:53pm

im with Eircom for the last 6 months, i am on a 17mb connection and i have been getting about 14mb without fail since i joined them.... they are expensive but they were the only option in my area bar a vodafone dongle.... but vodafone download limit of 10gig a month us hopeless to say the least... call eircom get them to do a test on your line and see what they say...

O'Prez · 12-01-2014 8:58pm

Sky did a test on it and said it was perfect...no noise or anything. But yeah, I'll call Eircom tomorrow and see what they say. Regarding price there's only 2.50 in the difference between them and Sky.

STEINBERG · 12-01-2014 9:05pm

yeah its always good to get a second test done..... did Sky say what speed they can give you? usually they can only provide what Eircom can anyway as its Eircom's lines they are using..

O'Prez · 12-01-2014 9:07pm

Yeah up to 12 which was what I always got until early December.

STEINBERG · 12-01-2014 9:08pm

Well give Eircom a call anyway and see what they say.... If it was me i would go with Eircom.... but that is just from my experience with them.

O'Prez · 12-01-2014 9:26pm

Aye. Cut out the middle man altogether I think is the best option at this rate.

punisher5112 · 12-01-2014 9:27pm

Hi we signed up for Eircom and were promised working broadband before 24th Dec. They sent two techs out to install the line done early Dec then nothing didn't recieve a modem no contact.

We rang and rang done all the live chat a lot of times and gotmodem Thursday but they still can't connect us.

We were with UPC but moved and they don't serve the area, but they were ringing and texting constantly looking for their modem which I found a terrible experience as it was not mentioned when I rang to check new address and in the end had to cancel and then because they forgot to cancel my account I had to pay an extra month even though I didn't have the sertvice.

To be honest they all seem very interested in signing you up and taking money but after sale service is terrible.

I do try and see the better side to things but they don't seem bothered if your with them or not.

STEINBERG · 12-01-2014 9:54pm

punisher5112 wrote: »

Hi we signed up for Eircom and were promised working broadband before 24th Dec. They sent two techs out to install the line done early Dec then nothing didn't recieve a modem no contact.

We rang and rang done all the live chat a lot of times and gotmodem Thursday but they still can't connect us.

We were with UPC but moved and they don't serve the area, but they were ringing and texting constantly looking for their modem which I found a terrible experience as it was not mentioned when I rang to check new address and in the end had to cancel and then because they forgot to cancel my account I had to pay an extra month even though I didn't have the sertvice.

To be honest they all seem very interested in signing you up and taking money but after sale service is terrible.

I do try and see the better side to things but they don't seem bothered if your with them or not.

Dont ever pay for a service you did not receive regardless of what the people tell you over the phone... My brother had the same issue with UPC and he just told them he had no service so there would be no payment.. they tried to tell him he had to pay and all this stuff... but of course they had no ground to stand on... he eventually got his service with a free months Internet.

NapoleonInRags · 12-01-2014 10:25pm

Having the exact same issue. Switched from Eircom to Sky broadband last month with promises of close to 15mb speeds at a much cheaper monthly cost.

Have been getting 12mbs early morning which gradually reduces as the day goes on. Just tested it there now and it's a measly .7mbs - can't even watch a youtube clip!

Sky have said that the line is A1, and its not a wifi problem as the speeds are the same through ethernet cable. I got some guff from them about trial and error with the settings etc etc.

I'm seriously considering cancelling the Sky broadband and going back to Eircom. I signed up for a one-year contract but I'll be straight to Comreg if they try to enforce that with such lousy service levels.

vishal · 12-01-2014 10:50pm

I'm with eircom and suffer the same probs. have 15 mbs in the morning but hit 6 or 7pm on a weekday and speed on speedtest drops to 1-3 mbs. yet if i run a torrent I get 15mbs even during evenings? i have good snr and line attenuation. There must be backhaul problems somewhere that is causing contention I figure.

The_Honeybadger · 12-01-2014 10:59pm

I'm with Vodafone and have also noticed a significant drop in speed lately, was always getting 10+mbp and that has fallen sharply down as low as 3mb at times. Just checked this evening and got 3.7, seems to be a widespread problem going by other threads.

O'Prez · 12-01-2014 10:59pm

It's royal pain in the hole is what it is. Jumping ship then would appear to be of no avail. I suppose if neither Vodafone nor Sky can do anything about it then the fault must lie with Eircom seeing as we're al on Eircom lines regardless of who the ISP is, right? Here's my speeds right now (and like vishal both my snr and attenuation are fine):

vishal · 12-01-2014 11:04pm

it's a joke alright, don't know if there is anything that can be done?

punisher5112 · 12-01-2014 11:06pm

I would say Eircom is playing around and possibly giving better service to their own customers but then as I have trouble with them maybe they are up to something else.

vishal · 12-01-2014 11:30pm

with a speedtest only get 1mbs now.
loaded up a torrent. with encryption enabled am getting 10mbs, without encription only get 2mbs.
it's obvious we are all being throttled. it's been on ongoing problem for months.

O'Prez · 12-01-2014 11:43pm

I think you're right. I emailed Vodafone numerous times about the whole thing and asked was I being throttled. They never once responded. The people over at Sky are a lot nicer to deal with and much more professional but they said there's nothing they can do. You read all this sh1te on ISP websites about fibre and uncongested broadband but the reality of it all is they can't even manage to adhere to the promise of a basic consistent download speed which in 2014 is shameful in comparison to most other countries.

ED E · 13-01-2014 11:03am

vishal wrote: »

with a speedtest only get 1mbs now.
loaded up a torrent. with encryption enabled am getting 10mbs, without encription only get 2mbs.
it's obvious we are all being throttled. it's been on ongoing problem for months.

Torrent encryption does nothing. The announces are sent in plain text so if anyone wants to throttle torrents its childs play "encrypted" or not.

Mor-Riomhaire · 13-01-2014 2:03pm

Trawling through different sites reveals that Eircom definitely appear to have an issue with their backhaul. I am seeing the same issues between 6pm and 12:30am at night where broadband speed reduces to a crawl. Other times its super fast, this is the same for Next Gen and efibre.

I believe that this all started around the time of the storms a few weeks ago. I have logged a support call, but due to the number of calls logged its taking some time for anyone to get back to me on this issue. Jumped through the usual hoops re. SNR and errors, in fact my line has never been as stable.

Not sure what is going on and there has been no official word from Eircom...

vishal · 13-01-2014 2:53pm

ED E wrote: »

Torrent encryption does nothing. The announces are sent in plain text so if anyone wants to throttle torrents its childs play "encrypted" or not.

All I know is with default settings in utorrent I can Max my connection out during the day but at night its bad but with changing the port number to 80 and enabling encryption I could nearly max it out again.

I can't Max it with a speed test at night.

I'm sure everybody we are being throttled

Mor-Riomhaire · 13-01-2014 5:09pm

Torrents perhaps, but Spotify and Netflix traffic? If it is universal throttling surely we would see a massive increase in complaints? You can control by traffic type, but if you universally throttle everyone, they will speak with their feet and leave. I'm considering it if they don't sort out this issue soon.

The_Honeybadger · 13-01-2014 5:51pm

Mor-Riomhaire wrote: »

Torrents perhaps, but Spotify and Netflix traffic? If it is universal throttling surely we would see a massive increase in complaints? You can control by traffic type, but if you universally throttle everyone, they will speak with their feet and leave. I'm considering it if they don't sort out this issue soon.

Even with my lowly 3mb I can stream two shows simultaneously on netflix with no buffering. Most people probably won't notice / care unless they are downloading very large files.

Mor-Riomhaire · 13-01-2014 6:28pm

I'm getting buffering issues with Netfilx and last night had issues for a short time with Spotify. Checked my Speeds and was getting 36kb/s max down. Eircom engineers have changed my socket at the exchange. Not sure if this will resolve anything. Eircom support guys on the forum say they are aware of the issues, but cant comment yet..

T-Bird · 13-01-2014 7:31pm

getting same problem here on 3mb in Sligo for past few weeks on and off. could it be weather related in some way?

STEINBERG · 13-01-2014 8:24pm

O'Prez wrote: »

I think you're right. I emailed Vodafone numerous times about the whole thing and asked was I being throttled. They never once responded. The people over at Sky are a lot nicer to deal with and much more professional but they said there's nothing they can do. You read all this sh1te on ISP websites about fibre and uncongested broadband but the reality of it all is they can't even manage to adhere to the promise of a basic consistent download speed which in 2014 is shameful in comparison to most other countries.

I would have to disagree with that, i am in an apartment block of 8 apartments, i am on a uncongested line with Eircom. It is a 17mb connection which can go to a max of 20mb, but i am happy to stay with the 17, i get a consistent 14.7mb download now for the past 6 months i have been with them. it never once slowed down.

Regardless of what speed ye guys have, did anybody who called there ISP ask how close they were to there nearest cabinet? if ye are getting slower speeds than ye are actualy paying for, and i mean like a hell of alot slower not just a few mb then i would suggest not paying yere bill. Its as simple as that. I have been there before and trust me once the payments stop,, then the ? are asked and thats when you can shove those bad speeds in there face .

vishal · 13-01-2014 9:46pm

i must not be nationally they are throttling. there must be areas where there is not enough backhaul. I'm in Newlands Cross, not too far from Citywest

O'Prez · 13-01-2014 10:09pm

I'm in North Tipp. Just went down the street to a neighbour's house (he's with Sky too) and his speed test results were the same as mine (2 to 3mb). I'm getting people from town to do speed tests on Facebook and post their results and so far 99% of them are reporting the same bad speeds.

O'Prez · 14-01-2014 10:57pm

Very interesting post here.

spuddy01 · 14-01-2014 11:39pm

I'm in west Limerick and was getting a constant 16mb with eircom on upto 24mb package but the last few wks it's down to 5-6mb and constant reboots of the router just to connect. I've given them 30 days notice of cancellation and will switch to sky even if i get the same service it will still be €40.00 cheaper than eircom.

O'Prez · 14-01-2014 11:59pm

spuddy01 wrote: »

I'm in west Limerick and was getting a constant 16mb with eircom on upto 24mb package but the last few wks it's down to 5-6mb and constant reboots of the router just to connect. I've given them 30 days notice of cancellation and will switch to sky even if i get the same service it will still be €40.00 cheaper than eircom.

I changed from Vodafone to Sky because of all this lark and am getting the same issue. Sky are much more professional in the customer service department though; knocked 30 quid off me first bill because of the speed problems which aren't their fault to begin with.

vishal · 15-01-2014 8:12am

perhaps we can contact comreg with a petition?

Is there something going on we don't know about?

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